John Kass: This is no time to close our eyes and go to sleep

A sign stands outside the National Security Administration (NSA) campus on Thursday, June 6, 2013, in Fort Meade, Md. The Obama administration on Thursday defended the National Security Agency's need to collect telephone records of U.S. citizens, calling such information "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats."

Last week, when Americans learned of a massive erosion of our freedom, also marked the 64th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's "1984."

Last week, when Americans learned of a massive erosion of our freedom, also marked the 64th anniversary of the publication of George Orwell's "1984."

If you haven't read it, please do so. If you read it years ago, read it again. The movie doesn't count.

But don't read it on the Internet. Instead, look for one of those quaint, old-fashioned "books on paper," so the federal security forces can't read along with you online.

On Friday, President Barack Obama stood in San Jose, Calif., to reassure a nation overwhelmed, perhaps numbed, at how quickly we've given up our liberty in the name of security.

President Big Brother from Chicago has always believed in the power of his rhetorical skills. Unfortunately, his aides forgot the speech. There was no script and no teleprompter.

"I think there's only one problem, and that is my remarks are not sitting here," Obama fumbled. "People! Uh, things, by uh, Friday, uh afternoon things get a little challenged.

"Ah, I'm gonna have a uh, I'm gonna answer a question at the end of the remarks, but I want make sure we get the remarks out. People! Oh, goodness!!" he said as an aide, scurrying forward with a printed copy of his remarks, all but tripped and fell.

"Oh? ... folks are sweating back there right now," he said.

With the speech printed for him, he began spinning against the news.

And what news? Something we've suspected for years.

The Guardian, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal told us that the federal government can now mine personal data from our phones, our credit card transactions and our Internet searches and postings.

The National Security Agency and the FBI are plugged directly into the electronic brains of the leading American Internet companies, from Google to Microsoft to Apple, the better to monitor the people who were once free. These federal agencies are now able to suck out photographs, audio, video, our email and other documents and track our movements and those of our friends.

According to an unnamed intelligence officer in The Washington Post, these once-secret federal computer powers give the government amazing reach. And that whistle-blower made a statement as devastating as the account in "1984" about Winston Smith and the rat cage.

The Post's whistle-blower said that federal police "quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type."

Think on that one for a moment: The government can see your thoughts building on your keyboard. And we thought Orwell was writing fiction, not history.

This all comes after other news, that the Internal Revenue Service was used to squash dissent and harass conservative and tea party groups; and that phone records of journalists from The Associated Press and Fox News were seized, even though President Big Brother insists that he's all about the First Amendment.

The loss of freedom has hit us so quickly that Obama felt compelled to stand up and make soothing sounds.

"When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls," he said Friday.

He neglected to add that they do track whom you call, when and for how long.

Obama admitted that Americans may be queasy about the long arm of the supersecret federal security forces, but that he had struck the right balance between privacy rights and the need to fight terrorism. He didn't mention that it was decided in secret.

"You can't have 100 percent security and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience," he said, stressing that members of Congress and federal judges had also been aware of these secret programs. "You know, we're going to have to make some choices as a society."

Popular Comments

The most important thing to remember about the book 1984 is that it is fiction.
It never happened, is not happing now and will probably never happen. However,
the level of hate in the book might almost equal the level of hate being
experienced by
More..

10:08 a.m. June 16, 2013

Top comment

Hutterite

American Fork, UT

Everyone seems to have found a new bible in orwell's book; the same book
you rolled your eyes at in high school. It was boring then, it's boring
now. But it lends a bit of hyperbole to the situation today, and with a bit if
imagination you
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9:00 a.m. June 16, 2013

Top comment

Counter Intelligence

Salt Lake City, UT

The comparisons between Obama and Orwell's villains (in both 1984 and
Animal Farm) are fairly obvious to anyone not playing ostrichThe apologies
from Obama sycophants are laughable but sadly appalling